lowers it. We want, when pursuing a great purpose, to get rid of the conditions of ordinary ones; we want to get rid of time; we want to get rid of party; we want to get rid of the vulgarity of the conflict, of the pain of its uncertainty; as if in attempting something noble and heavenly in its end, we deserved to be something more than men. This, if we desire to succeed, we must restrain. Besides having perseverance, energy, and courage, we must know both how to wait without impatience, and how to fail without despair. On these terms the Church has kept up her struggle, her chequered, yet real and manifold struggle, with the spirit of the world-on these terms and no other. On these terms we also may do good and effectual work in our day; not, indeed, satisfy all our aspirations, or achieve the perfect work which we yearn after, but do our part in the span which is allotted to us, and leave behind us something, faulty indeed and defective as it is sure to be, yet genuine, and having a principle of life; something which shall last.

For ourselves, we can only say, that we are prepared for these terms. No power in this country can command results just when it wishes: it must bide its time, it must wait for its opportunities. We are aware that we have powerful influences against us-and that this must add to the discomfort, the tediousness, nay, and the uncertainty of the struggle. But we feel so convinced of the deep strength of the English Church, and of the means at her disposal for influencing opinion, if she once resolves on it, that we cannot, for our own part, think of suiting the convenience of either of our antagonists, by relinquishing that vantage ground, which, if we think lightly of, they do not. We will not play the game of the liberals, by taking up,—at a time when the real feeling of the Church has been more unequivocally evinced, and in a more remarkable way than it has been for generations, by taking up, at just this time, the cry, that the Church has betrayed her faith and forfeited her birthright. It is indeed one way of declining the responsibility of combatting a real danger, to choose to interpret it as a token of dissolution, and proof of apostasy. Men make very free to tell us, what position the English Church holds in the sight of Almighty God, in consequence of Lord Langdale's judgment, and find no more difficulty in solving such a problem than in pronouncing on the fact of physical death, or local change. We must leave such persons to the positiveness which they require, and which they think themselves warranted in assuming. Meanwhile, they would do well to reflect on something which they may see. It would be worth their while to give a thought to what the English Church actually is in this lower world. It has been, and is, as a matter of fact, the great and real barrier between Christianity and unbelief in England. If ever any Church has fulfilled that distinc

tive office of the Church,-to be a standing witness of religion, to keep up the tradition and belief of it amid the manifold dangers, intellectual and moral, of human society-to keep it up on a great scale, and with great influence-to secure for it, even among the many, attachment and respect,-the English Church has done so. Put at the highest what the Church abroad has done in leavening the population in general with religion, the English Church has not done less and it has done so, in a manner and to an extent absolutely unexampled in any nation of equal freedom and equal intellectual culture. And those who complain of the vagueness and indecision of English popular dogmatism, compared with that of the Latin Church, ought, in the first place, to set the strength and permanence of the great outlines against the faintness of the details; and in the second, to set against that foreign precision of doctrine the price at which it has been bought,-both of corrupt additions, defended only because now inseparable from it, and of alienation of intellect from religion, and open abandonment of all faith, on a scale never yet seen in England.

There must be something much more serious and conclusive than anything that has yet happened, or as yet threatens to happen, to make us think that this is no longer the work and mission of the English Church-that no communion can rightfully, or can successfully preach the Gospel in England, but one which, great and admirable as it has shown itself in many points, on its own ground, has here, in spite of individual efforts and individual exceptions, invariably degenerated in its noblest features, and displayed in exaggerated forms those which are most uncongenial and repulsive-which, though claiming exclusively all that is lofty, and pure, and glorious in religion, has escaped none of the coarseness, or the childishness, or the unscrupulousness, or the intriguing and rancorous sectarianism, which it has been its wont to charge on Protestantism. We cannot think that we are yet summoned to this-to leave the Catholic and Apostolic traditions of our forefathers in the sole keeping of such a body as the branch of the Roman Communion in England has as yet shown itself to be-to leave English people to choose between the Christianity of Rome, with its extravagant dogmatism and ostentatiously anti-national spirit, or that liberal philosophy, which may hold Christianity in suspension in minds of high tone and religious training, but can be intelligible to the masses only as broad infidelity. Conscience has of late been freely appealed to, sincerely we doubt not, whether well or ill-informed.For ourselves, we cannot find it in our consciences, to leave the truth which God has entrusted to us, to encounter such risks, without a clearer and more commanding call than we have yet received. We cannot so betray the ancient faith in England.

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NOTICES.

Mr. Grinfield has put forth a very spirited 'Apology for the Septuagint,' (Pickering,) vindicating its claims to Biblical and Canonical authority, and we trust that his work will do much to remove the undue prejudice which commonly exists against the LXX. Version, and to re-instate it in the honourable position which it once enjoyed in the Western, and has never lost in the Eastern, Church. Such a course would prove a salutary check to German Biblical science, which, as a general rule, pays little or no regard to the LXX., and consequently sets at nought such allusions made by the New Testament writers to the Old Scriptures, as are based exclusively on that version. This and many other considerations are eloquently and persuasively urged by Mr. Grinfield, who has thus placed, so to speak, a graceful capital upon the goodly structure of his former works in connexion with the Septuagint. Many of his positions, doubtless, call for careful consideration and discussion; and this, we trust, they will meet with. But in the main we are disposed to acquiesce in them. One suggestion he has thrown out, which we think important, and well worthy of adoption-viz. that an English New Testament should be brought out, in which all the citations from the LXX. should be printed in italics, or otherwise indicated. This would enable the English reader to estimate the amount of LXX. matter contained in the New Testament. And if, in addition to this, the Old Testament were printed with a correct translation from the LXX. of all such passages as are quoted or referred to in the New Testament, the same English reader would have before him what now he has not, that form of the Bible (as far as regards these passages) under which the writers of the New Testament referred to it.-Mr. Grinfield has also published a 'Letter to Dr. Wiseman' (Pickering) remonstrating against the retention in the LXX. of the undoubtedly spurious verse in Deuteronomy, prohibiting marriage with a wife's sister. He is simply taking critical ground, and every one must agree with him, that however firmly they may believe that union to be implicitly forbidden in Holy Scripture, nothing can justify the foisting in of an explicit prohibition of it. One point of some critical interest is involved in the question. The spurious verse in question rests on the authority of the Vatican MS., and unless it shall appear that it has been inserted there by a later hand, it must tend to lower, in no small degree, the estimation in which that great rival of the Alexandrine has always been held.

'Catechetical Lessons,' (J. H. Parker.) The Clergy of S. Barnabas, Kensington, have published two most useful little helps to the Clergy in the important work of catechising. The first contains the Apostles' Creed, and the second the Ten Commandments, to be followed up by the other divisions of the Catechism. Doctrinal points are well brought forward, a numerous selection of texts judiciously chosen, and the whole plan adopted stands the test of general application.

'An Elementary Course of Geology, Mineralogy,' &c. by David T. Ansted, M.A. (Van Voorst.) The subjects embraced in this book have hitherto been difficult of access in a concise and simple form. Too great

elaborateness of detail, or too great mixture of speculation have accompanied geology; and its plain obvious truths, with their practical bearing on those branches of knowledge essential to all education, have consequently been shut out from many, anxious to keep pace with advancing science. This want is admirably supplied by the present work, which is sound, accurate, and comprehensive. It is invaluable as the completion of school geography, interesting to all elementary students of natural science, and useful for reference with all who cannot possess a numerous and well-assorted scientific library. Mr. Ansted's former works, though inferior to this in design, yet have established his literary and scientific qualifications for undertaking the labour so well and ably completed.

'A Physician's Holiday, or, Month in Switzerland,' by John Forbes, M.D. (Murray.) A hasty tour and off-hand description of places, things, and people. No one subject is dwelt on for above a few lines, but as any great profundity is thus avoided, so also is weariness of style. This book is partly a guide and partly a substitute for real travel, in the same manner that the overland route, or any other quick succession of pictures, may be so considered. As in most hasty productions, the writer's peculiar line of thought assumes an unfair prominence, and medical subjects too often cross his Alpine path. His notices of the Romish Church are commonplace, but inoffensive, and it is well that the theoretical illusion of Romanism should be checked by the evidence of the sight; for on many sides we are reminded that the most Protestant travellers do not much exaggerate the practical evils of that Church in its living actual character.

'An Essay on the Origin and Development of Window Tracery,' by E. A. Freeman, M.A. (J. H. Parker.) An interesting inquiry into a part of ecclesiastical art, which in these higher latitudes is of the most obvious importance. This is another wholesome effort to unravel the principles as well as copy the models of old times. The development of one kind of window into another through every age, is an admirable subject for an essay, and the result is worthy of its importance. The illustrations are numerous and well-selected.

The Church School-master,' by the Rev. Sanderson Robins, M.A. (Rivingtons,) is an earnest, sensible, and practical work on Education, well suited to the present crisis, without any apparent direct reference thereto. It is evidently the result of long and intimate acquaintance with the working of parochial Schools, and at the same time abounds in maxims and principles affecting all who are concerned with education in any form. The author's style is simple and unaffected, but not the less forcible, and there is an earnest and authoritative tone throughout, which causes all his suggestions to carry conviction with them. The work has the great merit of being at once liberal and sound, earnest and sober, and the writer's powers of condensation have compressed into a small 12mo. volume the matter of a complete and standard manual of the subject.

A Critical History of the Language and Literature of Ancient Greece,' by William Mure. (Longman.) Colonel Mure's work has excited considerable expectations among scholars, and we think that those expectations are fulfilled. It is probably the best book that has hitherto appeared upon

the subject, and will supersede Müller, who, with many excellences, is wanting in good sense, and often wanders beyond the evidence. The learning is great and the style good; and in the latter respect, this book is strongly contrasted with the equally learned, and perhaps more able work of Mr. Grote. The length is the worst part of this, as of so many good books in the present day. Three good sized octavo volumes have not brought the subject down to Pindar. We shall be glad when Colonel Mure reaches the dramatic poets; but if he treats them on the same scale as he has treated the minor lyric poets, his voluminousness will exceed all bounds. The great point of interest, and the strong point also in the present volumes, is the Homeric question, which we think Colonel Mure may be said to have almost set at rest. We have always been firmly convinced ourselves of the single authorship of the Iliad, and therefore, perhaps, we are more easily satisfied than a Wolfian sceptic would be, of the validity of arguments in favour of that hypothesis; but to us it appears that the theory which makes the Iliad to be a collection of ballads by separate authors is laid in the dust for ever. The objections taken by Lachmann and others on the ground of discrepancies and incongruities in different parts of the poem, never seemed to us to weigh a feather against the clear unity of design, uniformity of genius, and substantial development of character. Such as they are, however, Colonel Mure deals with them very successfully, and shows, that even if such incongruities are more numerous in Homer than in other poets, the only inference to be drawn is, that Homer was more regardless than other poets of minute accuracies of detail, and more exclusively careful of the general poetical effect. A direct confirmation is added by an ingenious observation of certain recurrences of thought or expression, too minute to be the result of imitation, and still too marked to be fortuitous; and an indirect confirmation, which, however, is the best of all, results from a general analysis of the poetical method, phraseology, characters, and ethics of Homer, which is performed with great ability. Another point is made against the Wolfian party, by showing the unfairness of which they have been guilty in always beginning with the Iliad, in which the incongruities are more numerous, and a plurality of authors more conceivable, instead of considering the support which the unity of the Odyssey lends in every way to that of the Iliad. But for our own parts we should be almost content to rest the unity of either poem on the single argument which results from the pervading uniformity of transcendent genius. Is it likely that among all the sons of men the first place in poetry should be due to Shakspere, the second to a dozen Homers?

Mr. Henry Hughes, a London Clergyman, has published a defence of Lord Lansdowne and 'the Government Scheme of Education.' It is published, which surprised us, by the Messrs. Rivington. We think that Mr. Hughes has earned, what we do not say that he had in view, 'the substantial gratitude,' as was lately said in Mr. Roebuck's case, 'of Her Majesty's Government.' Anyhow, Mr. Hughes' little pamphlet, and Mr. Dawes' preferment, synchronize.

'Goodsir's Arctic Voyage' (Van Voorst) has only its very creditable object, a contribution towards the scareh after Sir John Franklin, to recommend it. Though a manly, unaffected narrative, it is destitute of in